Artful Dodgers
by QueenAnne
Summary: She hopes he hasn't been lying the whole time, pretending to be wicked and really be good. Because that would be hypocrisy.
1. James Dean called...he wants his attitud...

Author's note: OK, I'm just posting this because I'm trying to get rid of a wretched case of writer's block as well as trying to get the idea of Gilmore Girls temporarily out of my head. I don't really care either way if you review or not, because this is totally random AND super super super short. I don't even know what in the world it's about. *Snort* So, with that said...read on, I guess!--Annest  
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There was something about the way he smiled when the door opened. The same thing she noticed when she saw her breath hitch before a drink of coffee. A long year had passed, one full of mistakes and promises, of renewals and rememberances that mixed with confessions and emotions, and still the woman sat on the vinyl-covered stool waiting for her daughter to come in, smile, and then look to the boy behind the counter.  
  
It was a cycle that refused to end, even with the events of life intermingled. A marriage, a homecoming, fights, finals, summer, school, kisses, the beginning of the most long awaited relationship, falling leaves, a friendship chosen over love, a Christmas celebration. And the boy and the girl had danced like the man and the woman had. So both the boys were unhappy, and both the girls were sad. And it was a shame, the woman at the counter thought, but for once it would come to an end.  
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Rory's breath hitched when Jess looked at her, and there was an incident at least once a day of coffee being spilled when he caught her gaze. As she breezed inside he turned away from the door, taking his time to fill the coffee pot.   
  
"Mom," Rory said breathlessly, dropping her backpack onto the ground with a thud. "I am the queen of the world."  
  
"Where on earth did you get this idea, oh daughter-of-the-queen-of-the-world? Don't tell me you're going to go all female Oedipus on me," Lorelei answered as usual.  
  
"Mom, how many times have I told you, that wouldn't work out anyway because Oedipus..."  
  
"Did it with his mom, yeah yeah, I remember. Do you always have to bring that up?" Lorelei moaned.  
  
"Do I always have to remind you that is kind of a vital part of the story?" Rory countered with a grin.  
  
"Oh you and your ancient Greek stories that are straight out of Arkansas. You're no fun at all. I'm going to find Luke," she told her daughter resolutely, heading off in search of her not-so-significant, not-so-romantic other. It was then that Rory noticed Jess's behavior.   
  
"Hi," she told him with a soft smile, even though his back was turned. Waiting a few seconds...Jess didn't answer. "Hey, James Dean called. He wants his attitude back. Hello?" Rory questioned, leaning over the counter.  
  
Jess abruptly turned to face her, pulling the two of them close. He didn't say anything, just looked at Rory until they were both as breathless as she had been a moment ago.  
  
"Hello Rory," was the nonchalant reply, but Jess's eyes were shifting all over her face.  
  
"Hello Jess..." Rory repeated questioningly.  
  
From the back of the diner Lorelei shot out like a track star, dashing around the tables as everyone looked on. Following closely was Luke, not quite as graceful as he chased her out of the door and around the corner. Rory looked back at Jess with her eyebrows raised.  
  
"You know, if they would just get it together for real this time, things wouldn't..."  
  
"Seem as if they were in love?" she ended sarcastically.  
  
"Love is over-rated, Rory. Or didn't you know that?" the ever-caustic Jess asked rhetorically.  
  
"Maybe it isn't, or didn't YOU know THAT? Answer one question, Jess," Rory requested.   
  
"Shoot," her companion ordered, nodding his head with a twinkle in his deep brown eyes.   
  
"How come you've never fallen in love?"  
  
"Because I," he said, and paused, "am the Artful Dodger." With a thump Jess set the coffee on the formica counter top with a trademark smirk. "Enjoy."  
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Maybe that's the end, maybe not. I don't know. At least I feel better having written. Ciao!--Annest 


	2. How do you dodge a problem you don't kno...

Author's spiel: I'm back, y'all. Hope you didn't mind the wait...heck, I hope you didn't mind the first chapter, either. = ) Anyway, school's out so I figured I'd give myself a little present by actually having time to write, ya know? So here it is...review if you want, but once again it doesn't matter--it's really short, I know, because I'm writing it in one sitting. If you want me to continue (or if you're a: Trix. or b: Calico, email me because I want to know what you two think about where I should take this piece o' crap) just review. Read on!--Annest  
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One thing Rory loved about reading was style. Style over substance wasn't usually her cup of tea, but once she was really fascinated by the writing itself it was so easy to go beyond the fluff of a story and delve into the mind of the writer himself.  
  
So perhaps My Antonia wasn't the best book as far as plots went. Rory had never lived on the prairie--heck, she didn't even like reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books very much. But the second she started to read she became so engrossed in Willa Cather's style of writing that she couldn't help herself; reading it turned into a study of the style, the words she used to create such beautiful, vivacious images. So engrossed she was that she barely noticed Jess as he leaned against the door frame of the diner.  
  
"Rory, Chilton's out for the summer. Certainly, this being your last day, you could at least take that huge bag off now that you're finished," he told her with a wry glance. Startled, she looked up, jumping a little inside when she looked into his eyes, but that was soon ignored in favor of her most recent discovery.  
  
"Jess! You have got to read this. I mean have to. It's possibly one of the more amazing books of all time."   
  
Jess stooped to take a look at the cover and grimaced. "Isn't that the chick who wrote O Pioneers?"   
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"And isn't it all, like, Little House on the Prairie?"  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"And you like it?  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"And you're sure you're not drunk? High? What exactly do they give you at that school?" he asked derisively.  
  
"No, I'm serious!" she said as the two wandered into the nice, cool diner. No one seemed to be around, so they found their way up to the apartment. "You don't understand. It's...well...it's not about the plot. Really. I mean, right now, the plot's kind of pointless. Not pointless, persay, because I guess there's some interesting stuff, like this story about these wolves, which was really really gory--I don't think I've read anything that strange lately, I mean it was really truly--"  
  
"Rory," Jess cut her off with a look, "you're babbling."  
  
"Oh, oh yeah," Rory said with a grin. "Anyway, no, this Cather lady has some amazing writing. It's phenomenal. That's mainly why I'm reading it--the way she uses these words...it's so...unreal," she told him. Coming back from her rant, she looked at Jess, who hadn't really said much else. He, on the other hand, was just looking at her with a very strange expression on his face. "What?"  
  
"Nothing," Jess shrugged. They ambled into his room, spacious now because of the finished addition. Rory always joked that just gave him more room in which to make a mess, and, in truth, it did. She threw aside one of HER sweatshirts he had oh-so-selfishly stolen and took her customary seat on an overstuffed chair in the corner.  
  
"Jess!" Luke bellowed from downstairs. Rory laughed at the scrunched-up look on her best friend's face.  
  
"The powers that be call," he said, rolling his eyes. Jess shot Rory a questioning look.  
  
"I'm gonna hang out up here, finish reading. If he's yelling for you, Taylor must be down there. And I absolutely will not allow Taylor to distract me from..."  
  
"...this seriously awesome writing," he mimicked to finish her sentence. With a grin, he left, leaving the bedroom door open. Seconds later Rory could hear the door to main room slam shut, and she returned to My Antonia.  
  
"Ow," she groaned after awhile. Rory got up, certain she was sitting on something, and felt on the surface of the chair. A black hardback book was sticking up between the cushion and the arm. She opened it innocently, assuming that it was a book without a jacket, and took a glance at the first page.  
  
It's not in the way you love me  
But what you say when I'm with you  
And if we could never be together again  
I wouldn't say a thing, because there's nothing I could do  
But just take a look  
and I know you'll see  
everything I could never say  
In my eyes I hold the key  
to all my feelings you say I hide  
It's not even that you love me, because I believe you don't--  
No, that's not what keeps me alive--  
But the hope in me,  
The glimmer inside  
because I see the possibility  
of love in your eyes.  
Yes we may be...  
complicated, understandably  
But I feel bad for those  
who love blindly through simplicity.  
  
Her heart was racing, her pulse beating a cadence through her body, her breath was catching in her throat. Rory thought she was dying. Shock coursed over her entire person, utter disbelief at the words she had just seen, and yet such a feeling of certainty that the words were beyond truth--she blinked once, twice. To the next page, and the next.   
  
Footsteps were light on the stairs up to the apartment, and Rory froze. Then Luke's voice came from downstairs; "Jess!" The footfalls faded away, and she let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. Furtively, she glanced around the room, eyes finally landing on a pad of paper and a pen.  
  
Rory quickly scribbled down the first poem, the second, the third, even a few after that, her heart racing the entire time. By the time she was finished copying the sixth one, she felt just a little guilty, and yet sad at the same time. Rory slid the journal back into its original place as Jess' foosteps were once again heard on the stairs, and this time were not called back; she calmed herself and covertly marked her actual place in My Antonia and started again about twenty pages later--Jess was observant, he would easily notice.  
  
"Hey, your mom's downstairs, she wants to go rent a movie," Jess told her, flopping down onto the bed. Rory shot him a wry look as if nothing had happened and started to the door. Remembering her desperate look around the room earlier, she stopped by one of the expansive bookshelves and pulled out a book to toss onto his reclined form.   
  
"Bye, Dodger," Rory said with a grin before disappearing out of the bedroom and down the stairs.  
  
Jess looked at the worn, frayed copy of My Antonia and back to the doorway through which she had passed. "Bye, Antonia," he told the feeling of Rory that was still left in the room.   
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El Fin (para ahora) Do you like it? I'll continue, I promise, because now I want to. I don't know when I'll get time, but I definitely hope to. Anyway, remember my author's note!--Annest  
  



	3. I can still see your tears through the r...

Author's Warning: WARNING. This is not a complete chapter, it is MUCH TOO SHORT. Please do not expect it to be. WARNING. There is a %95 chance that the substance in this psuedo-chapter is horrible, terrible, wretched or a combination of the three. WARNING. I will only continue this story on 2 conditions: 1) I get some sort of feedback. Feedback is running severly low on FF.net lately; I know, I'm guilty of "reading and running" myself. 2) That Trix and/or Calico email me immediately with their ideas for where this story should go. I need you guys' help seriously. Like, beyond seriously. You think I'm kidding? No way.   
  
Whoa, that warning ended up kinda lengthy. But pay attention to it! I was serious! Anyway, with that said, read on!--Annest  
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"Moooooooooom," Rory moaned, staring up at the sky. Next to her Lorelei imitated the drawn out groan.   
  
"Rooooooory..." she said. "But that's not fair...your name isn't as much fun to say," Lorelei commented sleepily, laying her head back down onto the warm cement of the sidewalk.   
  
"What are you going to do about it? Rename me?" Rory rolled her eyes beneath their closed lids.  
  
"Nothing. If I weren't so damn tired. And hot. Then I'd..." she trailed off in a daze.   
  
"You still wouldn't do anything. Admit it."  
  
"I think, Ror, that we have ourselves a serious problem," Lorelei told her, not bothering to look at her daughter while she talked.  
  
"We have more than a serious problem. We're too hot to annoy Kirk, too tired to annoy Taylor, too scared to annoy Mrs. Kim, heck, we're even too lazy to annoy Luke and Jess!"  
  
"Is that why you two are lying on the sidewalk?!" the younger potential object of their annoyances yelled from the apartment above Luke's. Neither Rory nor Lorelei opened their eyes, but Rory did nod.   
  
"Isn't this what it's here for?" Lorelei asked, her closed eyes not detering her from making her trademark innocent face.   
  
"No! Walking! Sidewalk! No sleeping! Inside!" Luke shouted from behind the counter inside. Rory managed to open her eyes just enough to cast a glance at Jess.  
  
"Six words? The heat's getting to him too, huh?" she asked sleepily. Jess grinned with a shrug.   
  
"I'on't know," he said, jumping out of the window and onto the tree, carefully shimmying his way down to the street level and then Rory suddenly found his face right above hers. "So exactly why is it that you and Lorelei are lying on the sidewalk in front of the diner anyway?"  
  
"Have you no sense of temperature, rebel without a cause? The sun is pointing her galactic hairdrier at us and laughing her shining little ass off," Lorelei pointed out even as Luke, groaning and annoyed, pushed open the door.   
  
"Lorelei, what did I tell you? Get inside," he ordered, dragging both Lorelei and Rory off of the ground and through the door he propped open with his foot. The girls let out a collective sigh of relief at the air conditioned atmosphere inside the diner.  
  
"Mom," Rory said after a second, "why the hell didn't we just go ahead and come in here?"  
  
"Because we were too hot and too tired to think to do something that would stop us from being too hot and being too tired," Lorelei told Luke, winding her way around the counter toward the coffee. Luke didn't even have to look her direction to stop her from getting any closer to the much-coveted beverage.   
  
"Luke, I think I left one of my purses upstairs. Can I go get it?" Lorelei asked him plaintively. With a questioning look Luke conceded. Rory, on the other hand, elbowed Jess. The last time Rory and Lorelei had been at the diner, Lorelei hadn't carried a purse at all.  
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"Lorelei, what are you still doing up here?" Luke asked, looking into the apartment's kitchen, where she wasn't found. He looked through most of the apartment; the bathroom, even his bedroom (where he hated to think she even may have been) but she hadn't turned up. And Luke was fairly certain she hadn't outsmarted him again, he figured she'd already reached her quota of five times a week on Tuesday or so.   
  
"Luke," he heard Lorelei's voice wafting through the apartment. Judging it to be from the den, his instincts were rewarded when he found her half asleep on the couch in front of one of the air-conditioning vents. "I'm bored," came the moan again from Lorelei, whose face was buried in one of the pillows.  
  
"Ah...um..." After a long friendship, a short romance and still another friendship with Lorelei, Luke was still often at a loss for words around her.  
  
"I'm bored. Find me something to do!" the brunette demanded.  
  
"I don't know of anything for you to do, Lor, why don't you just find your purse and get back downstairs?"   
  
"I don't want to. Come sit by me, Luke," Lorelei half-asked, half-whined. Damnit, Luke thought, something about Lorelei was so odd lately. She had been so difficult in the last week or so he didn't know what to do, other than deprive her of coffee until she returned to normal...or at least what was normal for Lorelei Gilmore, he said to himself derisively. But he obeyed anyway, and the two sat in companionable silence, the kind of silence that is perfect because it's not completely empty, it's not completely full, it's perfect.  
  
"Lorelei," Luke asked after a moment, "what's wrong with you these days?"   
  
Lorelei looked up at him with half closed eyes that still managed to look startled. "Why...ah, why do you ask?" Somehow Lorelei was starting to sound like Luke.  
  
"What do you mean, why do I ask?" Luke questioned, suddenly angry with her. "Because you lie on the sidewalk outside the diner, you randomly glare at Jess...more often than usual...and you never talk to me. Hell, you don't even come in for coffee on your regular schedule!" he explained to her.  
  
Lorelei couldn't help it. "You keep a schedule of when I come in for coffee?!" she cracked up, but was silenced with a glare from Luke.  
  
"Well? What's going on?"  
  
"I'm...well Luke, I just can't tell you!" Lorelei answered, burying her face in the pillow. Luke gave her a look that spoke volumes. Mainly volumes that said things like "I swear to God, this woman is insane."  
  
After a few minutes of silence, Lorelei spoke again. "Wai men hwuuv."  
  
"What?"   
  
"Mom!!" Rory called from the stairs. "Sookie's down here, she wants to talk to you!" Lorelei got up from the sofa--Luke was still staring at her oddly.   
  
"What did you say, Lorelei?" he asked again, coming close to her as she opened the door to the stairs.   
  
"I'm in love..." Lorelei told Luke, biting her bottom lip at the reaction in his eyes. Something in them frightened her, something she couldn't understand, something that even coming from her best friend was troubling and unsuspected, and somehow it hurt her to look into his eyes any longer, so she glanced at the bottom of the stairs, where Jess and Rory were waiting. She couldn't bear to see what Luke thought of her. Or, worse, what he didn't.  
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I'm so afraid of falling in love again.  
I don't want to fall in love with you.  
I never meant to, can't you understand?  
I know one day we'll belong together  
Perhaps I can't wait to find out  
I never meant to make myself cry  
Make you sad, end up hurt  
Hurting myself is what seems to be so easy  
Fixing my pain is what you tend to do best  
  
Rory was crying, wiping the tears from her eyes, sitting on the bed surrounded by clothes and shoes and all types of stuff, but ignoring all of it. She was lost in the words she read, words that somehow made her so inexplicably sad.   
  
Jess, from outside the window, let the cooling summer rain soak through his clothes as he watched the tears from Rory's eyes fall onto a wrinkled sheet of paper. He wasn't sure what made her cry, but he wished he knew, wished he could take away her pain, something, anything. And then a noise behind him made Rory cast a glance toward the window, and he was still there, dark brown eyes looking through the blackness into her own blue ones. And somehow that made Rory cry even harder.  
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Okay, that's it for right now. So, what did you think? Is it up to par? Review, please, if you like this, because I'm having such a hard time writing this, honestly. And I'll try and be back before this weekend, because on Sunday I leave for 3 whole friking weeks (darn me for being such an overachiever. I mean, who but over achievers ends up going to MSA anyway?!). Thanks!--Annest  
  
  
  



	4. I'll be your Angel of the morning

Author's...something-or-other: OK, guys, I'm off to MSA (Missouri Scholars' Academy...that's me, the stupid overachiever) bright and early Sunday morning, but I thought I would give you a tiny, semi half-a'd update. Another WARNING: this is NOT a full chapter! This isn't even a third as long as the last one! This is merely a short little passage that I hope will tide you guys over.  
  
And an author's note to Mabon: usually I don't do this, speak to reviewers specifically because it always annoys me when other people do it, but I do have ONE thing to say to you. No offense, but perhaps you should think before you write stuff in your reviews. Moreover, perhaps you should read the rest of the chapters before you review. Everyone else realizes the pairings in this story, or I hope and think that they do. But like I said, please wait until you read everything to review. Hopefully that will make everything a lot better thought-out. Thank you.  
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"Coffee. Pronto," Lorelei told Luke, bursting in the door to his bedroom. Luke, who was barely awake, finally opened one eye. Once he realized that Lorelei was in his room, thought, he was fully awake to say the least--letting out a shout, Luke grappled with the pillows and sheets until he found himself landing with a thud on the cooled wood floor.   
  
Luke looked up at Lorelei with a glare. "What...the...hell are you doing here, woman?" he asked her, and she laughed with glee.  
  
"Coffee, Luke!!" Lorelei said again, still giggling. Luke, too, was still glaring.  
  
"Luke, coffee? Please?" she groaned, flopping down on the bed. Luke then noticed she must have come straight from her bed; she was still dressed in pajama pants that were covered in the cups full of the object of her demands and a slightly skimpy spaghetti strap top. Luke, unfortunately, turned fully to her as the strap slid off one smooth shoulder. He groaned and ducked back under the sheets quickly, but Lorelei, not to be dissuaded, followed him. "Luke, gimme coffee. Please! I broke the coffee machine AGAIN! Can't you see I came straight from bed?"   
  
Suddenly Luke couldn't find his voice at all. "Umm...ah...yes, I can...uh, see that," he said with a strangled voice. Lorelei finally noticed his discomfort and grinned, sliding closer to him under the covers, rubbing her bare shoulder against his.  
  
"Luuuuuke..." she said, widening her eyes and flashing the patented Gilmore smile, "please...give me some coffee? I promise to pay you back." This came with an affected wantoness, and Luke groaned again.  
  
"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Lorelei--" he warned, flipping over and moving to the other side of the bed. But she followed, not caring. "I will not get out of bed just to get you coffee! There is absolutely nothing you can do, I'm sorry!" Luke told her firmly.   
  
Lorelei gazed up at him for a split second before she captured his lips in hers, an early morning dance, cool bed sheets against their skin, surprisingly intimate, and then she intertwined her fingers in his hair, pulled him closer to her. Luke rolled over gently as she wrapped one leg softly around his waist, moaning into her mouth as the sleepily groped for each other's hands in the early morning light. Finally, on a breath, he pulled away, and she blinked. It was astounding. The light shone softly around her face, creating a soft halo, as she sleepily opened her eyes. On the inside, Luke was shaking; it was much--much--too much as if they had spent the night together, slept together, woken up together.   
  
Nothing would ever be the same if he woke up with Lorelei Gilmore, this much Luke knew.   
  
"I'll go get you that coffee now," he told her, and Lorelei just lied there for a minute, listening to his bare feet padding on the cool wood floors, and she couldn't help but feel like crying.   
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"I think I need to go away," Rory said, lying with her head on Jess' stomach on the Gilmore's porch swing.   
  
"But I can't," she continued, "I need to stay here." Jess said nothing.   
  
"I don't have anywhere to go, either," she said. In front of them, the street lights glowed softly through the trees, and jazz music floated quietly from next door. The night was cool, cooler than the days still were, and Rory settled into the folds of Jess' sweatshirt-like jacket.   
  
Jess swallowed, and Rory spoke again. "But if I did...I couldn't go alone. And I couldn't go with mom. And I couldn't go with Lane..."  
  
"And I can't go at all. Really, it wouldn't work out."  
  
"I know, I know...well, it wouldn't work out because I need to stay here, don't I, Jess?" There was silence. "Jess?"  
  
A pause, in Jess, around Jess, and Rory's heart sped up for a second. "Why stay here?" he asked quietly, so low that Rory had to strain to hear him.  
  
"I don't know," she answered after a moment. "My mom, I guess."   
  
"Rory, she has Luke." Rory balked for a moment, but realized it was true--if she were to go away for a weekend, even a week, Lorelei would have plenty of company in the diner owner.  
  
"Then Lane," Rory offered again.   
  
"House arrest, so there'd be no point."   
  
Rory was grasping at straws. She didn't know why she should stay there--Jess was right. But there was a reason, an undeniable pull on her heart, that told her she couldn't leave, couldn't think of it.  
  
"I don't know. But there's something."  
  
"Something I'm sure of..." she continued, speaking to the quiet, breeze-filled outdoors rather than to the again-silent Jess.   
  
Jess.  
  
"Jess," Rory began haltingly, "were--was it--were you--were you outside my window the other night?" She tensed her muscles, embarassed to be asking what was surely a stupid question.  
  
"Yes," came the monotone answer.  
  
"Well...what were you doing?" she pursued, a bit boldened by the thought she wasn't hallucinating.  
  
"I don't know..." he started to say. "Something...something I'm sure of," he repeated her own words to her.   
  
Rory looked up, and a lone tear splashed on her upturned face as Jess looked up the the stars.  
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The end, for now. What did you guys think? I know, it took me forever to get this up here...I didn't get it put up before MSA, and therefore, when I got back 3 weeks later to find that FF.net was not in the...best of health...it's taken me longer than previously estimated. Anyway, review, please? And I promise I'll update before I leave again. Really this time!!--Annest 


	5. I woke up for THIS?!

Author's really sleepy talking-age: Hey guys, it's me. Back again. Yep. *Yawn* Read on...it's super short, and I just needed to write a bit, so I can guarantee that it won't be good. Sorry. But review, please, so I know. Ciao!--Annest  
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"Good morning, Jess," Rory said, wandering in the Gilmore kitchen two or three mornings later. She reached for the coffee pot and did a double take faster than she could say "what the heck are you doing here?"  
  
"What the heck are you doing here?!" Rory asked him, glancing with wide eyes at the unexpected house guest at the kitchen table.  
  
Jess glanced at her with a cocked eyebrow. Rory bit down the inexplicable desire to launch herself at him--where did that one come from?!--and waited patiently for an explanation.  
  
"Your mom said I needed to come by and fix the air conditioner or something. Actually, it sounded more as if she wanted time with Luke, but don't ask me. She said your air conditioner WAS broken though. And seeing as I do have the tool box with me on this fine morning, I thought I'd come by just to make sure," he told her. Rory took a seat at the table after grabbing the pop tart box from the cabinet, careful not to brush past him.  
  
"So, um...what time is it? Isn't it really early for my mom to be up, let alone, like, hitting on Luke?" she asked him with a grin. Jess groaned quietly.  
  
"Please, don't plant the idea of her and Luke making out in the kitchen in my brain. I've already had to get rid of that one today; I believe Luke's exact words were 'it's not as if we're making out in the back of the diner'. But I still got the mental picture..."  
  
"Ew, and now I do! Thanks a lot, Jess..." Rory whacked his shoulder with the empty pop tart container and he sarcastically winced.   
  
"Exactly what I said. Anyway, so where is this air conditioner?" he asked casually, eyeing her up and down. Somehow Jess had just managed to make name of a common house hold fixture into one big sexual innuendo. Stupid rebellious bad boys; they never made anything simple. Rory sighed.   
  
"It's...well...hm, um...more coffee?" she asked quickly. Jess snorted.  
  
"You're telling me you don't know where the air conditioner is in your own house?!?" he balked.   
  
"No, I expressly asked if you wanted more coffee." Rory took one look at Jess' face and gave up. "No, I don't. Sheesh, do you have to rub it in?"  
  
Jess took a break from laughing to look straight at her. "Yes," he grinned. Rory stood up and stomped back into her room.   
  
"Find it yourself!" she called behind her.  
  
"Nice pajamas!" Jess shot back. There was a huge exasperated sigh, and then the door slammed. Jess wasn't worried--apparently Luke had run into the same problem the last time he had to fix the air conditioner, and had told him where it was.   
  
Now...if he could only get her to come back out of her room again. He must admit, he was partial to those pajamas.   
  
"Wooooow," Jess said to no one in particular. "I didn't know they made clothes like that..."  
  
From Rory's room came the sound of a shoe hitting the door. "I heard that!" she yelled back.   
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Author's ashamed end ramblings: I'm so sorry, guys, that this is so friking short. I haven't been incredibly interested in writing lately, so I need to get back into the swing of things. Please, review and tell me what you think. Thanks!!--Annest 


	6. Indian Nights

Well...here's the deal, y'all keep asking me for more on these Gilmore fics. And I still love them, the ones that I've neglected, that is, and so here's a VERY VERY SHORT update. I hope you enjoy it. And tell you what--if there's anywhere you can think of this story going, put it in the review. Please! --Annest  
  
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The air was getting cooler at night, and Rory enjoyed that. It was late summer, and the oppresive heat in the day eventually tapered off to cool evenings and some downright cold nights. This she knew, because that was when she met Jess. At two a.m. And it was becoming cold at 2 a.m. these days, when she snuck out of the house and down to the diner.  
  
It was dark in the diner that night, and she almost turned around. He didn't seem to be there, and it wasn't typical. He hadn't let her down before, he really hadn't. Usually, a tiny light was on, so she knew. The light above the sink, last Tuesday. The lamp by the cast register, two weeks ago. The other night, he had lit a candle, discreetly, by the door. They had sat on a blanket, in the middle of the diner floor, and talked quietly. The dark navy blanket he had spread out was soft under her, and he looked at her, an unreadable expression in the semi-darkness, and she laughed a lot. About the books they were reading, about the political parodies she had recently delved into.   
  
"Orange Jess. It's hilarious. Exploding heads. Florida politics. You have to read it. It's phenomenally funny," she insisted. He just sat there, and handed her water to wash back the chocolate syrup she had been squirting straight into her mouth.   
  
Tonight, there were no lights. And she was troubled. What had happened? It was possible...he had forgotten. Or that he just didn't want to see her.   
  
A last look at the diner, and she turned to the gazebo, then turned toward home. Sleep called to her, and the dark of night seemed comforting in her confusion.  
  
And then the light in his bedroom turned on. She looked up, but there was no sign of him at the window. A step or two back toward the diner, and her brain began recanting the words she read before sneaking out that night.  
  
It isn't in how I love you,  
  
Or the way you look tonight,  
  
What you say  
  
when you find  
  
I've not been what you expected  
  
Not been who you thought you had  
  
I don't have your hand  
  
or your heart   
  
or your mind  
  
because of how I love you  
  
but that I do  
  
In the night  
  
His face was in the window now, smiling at her, before he realized she saw him. And when she smiled back at him, he felt a bit more free to grin again. One smile at a time. She'd eventually get him to love, she decided, but she didn't know why it was so damned important to her in the first place.   
  
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Please review...just so I know it was okay, albeit incredibly short?! 


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